Paul George exited the Sixers' preseason game Monday night in Atlanta with a left knee injury the team called a “hyperextension.”
In a much less significant development, the Sixers earned a 104-89 exhibition win over the Hawks.
Tyrese Maxey posted 14 points on 5-for-18 shooting and seven assists. George had eight points on 3-for-5 shooting, two rebounds and an assist in 13 minutes (more on his injury below).
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Outside of Joel Embiid’s absence, the Sixers started at full strength. A Sixers official said Sunday that Embiid will not play this preseason, but that his left knee is “progressing well.” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse told The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Gina Mizell pregame that the team’s plan to manage Embiid’s health through the season is “right on course.”
Embiid provided more detail on that plan in a story by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
“If I had to guess, I would probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career,” Embiid told ESPN.
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The Sixers’ penultimate preseason contest will be Wednesday night vs. the Nets at Wells Fargo Center. The health of their stars is clearly a larger storyline than that game.
Below are observations on Sixers-Hawks:
Going with Gordon in starting lineup
Instead of Caleb Martin, Nurse opted to start Eric Gordon alongside Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr., George and Andre Drummond.
The Sixers fell behind 7-0. George opened the scoring for the team with a pull-up three-pointer, but the offense didn’t suddenly roll from there. Many of the Sixers’ half-court possessions were sloppy and out of sync. George committed turnovers on consecutive plays.
From an individual standpoint, there’s no mystery about the 35-year-old Gordon. The 6-foot-3 veteran held up fine when 6-8 Jalen Johnson took him to the post early, contesting a missed jumper. Gordon drained his first shot, hitting a catch-and-shoot three from the left wing.
As a unit, the Sixers’ starters bounced back decently. George and Maxey totaled 13 points in the game’s first nine minutes and looked dangerous anytime Atlanta’s defense wasn’t fully organized. When Nurse subbed in Martin, Kyle Lowry and Guerschon Yabusele, the Sixers only trailed by a point.
Promising work from George plus the second unit
KJ Martin checked in to begin the second quarter. Every Sixers starter other than George watched from the sidelines.
Especially given how Nurse likes to play Maxey for the entire first quarter, similar lineups would make sense during Embiid-less nights in the regular season. And outside of the basic notion that George is capable of leading bench-heavy units, having Caleb Martin on the court early in the second quarter seemed right Monday. He’s a versatile, switchable player and it doesn’t hurt that he’s tight with Lowry from their time together on the Heat.
The Sixers had a sweet possession right away as drives by George and Caleb Martin eventually led to a wide-open Yabusele three. KJ Martin then scored an and-one layup in transition and the Sixers wound up tallying the first eight points of the second quarter.
The team used a nine-man rotation in Monday’s first half and did not play Ricky Council IV until the fourth quarter.
George's early exit
George subbed out about four minutes into the second quarter shortly after an awkward collision with Johnson. He did not return.
The Sixers provided an update on George early in the fourth quarter, calling his injury a “left knee hyperextension,” per Mizell.
George told The Inquirer postgame that he’s “not too concerned” about the injury.
At 34 years old, George is coming off a season in which he played 74 games and averaged nearly 34 minutes. Like with Embiid, the Sixers care much more about George’s health in the postseason than his pre-playoff statistics. And, as has long been the case with Embiid, anything pertaining to a preseason or regular-season game is far less important than the news that he has a knee injury.
Jared McCain (11 points on 4-for-10 shooting, four rebounds) was the one additional Sixer to play in the third quarter against Atlanta. The Sixers managed to build a double-digit lead and ultimately improved to 2-2 in preseason play.